PARENTS, teachers and pupils are appealing for help to save a much-loved but dilapidated swimming pool.

Stepgates Community School in Chertsey needs to raise at least £100,000 to renovate the pool and the building or more to build a replacement facility after it had to be closed due to leaks on Tuesday (June 26).

The school and its Parent Teacher Association (PTA) are in the process of writing to hundreds of businesses to ask for financial support as well as organising fundraising events and applying for numerous grants.

PTA member Adele Cutting, whose son Artie attends the school, said the pool and the building that houses it are in desperate need of refurbishment, having served pupils and the wider community for more than 50 years.

She said: “We need to put money into it or we are going to lose it. It is used almost every day, apart from when the weather is bad, because if there are high winds it can’t be used because of the state of the roof.

“It’s massively important. It is fantastic for the kids, for them to have their own swimming pool and lots of people in the community have probably swum in the pool.

“It has been used by the community for years.”

The school has already been given a donation of £3,000 by Proctor & Gamble and Michele Fernandez, the school’s business manager, believes saving the pool will take a combined effort of successful grant applications, fundraising efforts and business donations.

“We have applied for grants but there are only so many summer fairs and cake sales and things that we can do. We are very reliant on finding funding,” she said.

School governor Geoffrey Hackett said the pool was an ‘essential’ facility at Stepgates.

He added: “These are difficult times for businesses and for individuals but I think there is a steadying of the economy now so hopefully people will be able to start considering helping a worthy cause such as ours and put a hand in their pocket to help us.

“I am absolutely hopeful we can raise the money. There is nothing that is impossible, it’s just the timescale now. It is now urgent because we are going to have to fund alternative facilities to teach swimming so the faster we can do it, the better.”

The school is holding a fundraising fair organised by the PTA on Saturday between 11.30am and 2.30pm and quiz nights and mufti days are also planned to boost the swimming pool fund.